Ki Tavo — Bringing the Harvest (Songs From the Diaspora)
Songs From the Diaspora is a poetry blog inspired by the weekly Torah portion or other timely Jewish texts and sources. This week I turned Parashat Ki Tavo and the first fruits as a source of inspiration. I drew upon my love of the land, the ideas of harvest, offering, Avoda, and agriculture.
Ki Tavo
I
Rose gold overlays
the pigeons breast of morning
braided brows huff in the breeze
sheaves tied in knotted hands
the hour warming
II
A swoop and shush of wings
small feet chattering
amid scattered hulls
loose strands of the harvest tumble through fingers and reeds
to meet drawing earth
III
Hand-print leaves, their upturned edges
a grey-green frill
Hems so like our own garments-
stained purple by the globes hung beneath
those flat awnings
IV
A crown of sweet stars
striking across a sapphire faced day
each spine a blessing, each seed an epoch
the honey of their palms
a constant river
V
The almond leaves slide underfoot
mottled leather riles apart to show
a furled pith
enwombing shards
of cherry amber
their burst a high swift call in winters breath
the gleeful contraction of a cheek
VI
Silver trees anoint the hills
we bind clusters of purple and green-
the oil remembers
stones and cypress
the small creeping heathers
the wood’s tight nap on our knives
VII
A mother’s curved back in each fruit,
robed in green, or dark like a wife in winter
a flushed nape of perfume
each round rib reveals-
the sugar of a baby’s mouth
a speckled river, teethed with seed and flower
